London, 29 March - Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has been on a campaign to curb the Iran threat. He has quite rightly identified Iran as the number one threat to peace and security in the Middle East and the number one state sponsor of terrorism.

His administration is in the midst of pursuing a maximum pressure campaign that has the aim of cutting the government off from the extensive revenue that it uses to fund terrorist activities and its militias and proxy groups that are scattered across the region. Some of Iran’s main allies in the region include the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Bashar al Assad of Syria, and the Shiite militias in Iraq.

London, 29 March - Large parts of Iran have been affected by major flooding in the past few days. A large number of people have lost their lives and an even bigger number of people have been injured or have lost their homes to severe damage.

The people have not been given any support by their local authorities and the regime has tried to cover up the extent of the devastation. It has been reported that journalists have been blocked from entering hospitals so that they cannot write or speak about the number of killed or injured.Tehran, the nation’s capital, is about to face a crisis because of the rising water levels. The city, which is home to 9 million people, is being spoken about widely on social media.

London, 29 March - Last Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the people of Lebanon to stand up to the terrorist Hezbollah group and its “criminality, terror and threats”. He made it very clear that the United States would be applying additional pressure to both Iran and Hezbollah – Iran’s Shiite ally.

Pompeo also said that the people of Lebanon are being given a choice - to “bravely move forward” or to “allow the dark ambitions of Iran and Hezbollah” dictate their future. He emphasised that the United States would continue to curb Iran and Hezbollah’s malign influence as peacefully as possible.

London, 28 March - Domestic unrest has reached unprecedented levels in Iran, to the point where the totalitarian leader Ali Khamenei is strengthening his position on his policies of persecution, power projection, and terror by appointing hard-liner loyalists to critical positions in state institutions to ensure that they remain faithful to the "principles" of the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

In fact, Khamenei recently appointed Ebrahim Raisi to head Iran’s judiciary. Raisi ran against, and lost to, Hassan Rouhani in the presidential elections of 2018. His loss was largely due to the fact that Raisi is known to the Iranian people as a violator of human rights. He played a leading role in "the summer of blood" — the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners.

London, 28 March - On Nowruz, the first day of the Persian new year as well as the vernal equinox, the Supreme Leader’s annual address focused on foreign policy, and a call for Iran to develop its non-oil economy.

This speech, delivered in Mashhad, is believed to carry more significance than any other. This year, it offered little hope regarding the country’s economic suffering.

Because of its Zoroastrian roots, the clerical orthodoxy is historically hostile to the Nowruz festival. Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic’s founding leader, never so much as used the word “Nowruz” in his annual address.

Donald Trump’s national security team is divided over whether to extend the sanctions waivers on Iranian oil that they granted after reimposing sanctions on the country last November. The waivers are due to expire in May, but it is unclear whether they will be renewed and with his advisors divided, it may be up to Trump to make the final call.

John Bolton and National Security Council favour dropping the waivers and getting even tougher on Iran and removing the waivers, highlighting that oil prices are considerably low at the moment and are unlikely to rise too much. A spokesman said that agencies are coordinating to increase the pressure on Iran, which could include by removing sanctions waivers. The Energy Department also believe that it is time to turn up the heat on Iran.

London, 26 March - In May 2018, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and reimposed sanctions on Iran, citing that the agreement failed to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, rather only delaying it until 2024.

In order to put pressure on Iran to come back to the table for a new deal that did stop them from creating a nuclear weapon, the US State and Treasury Departments put numerous sanctions on Iran.

Most recently, they levied sanctions against 31 entities and individuals linked to the Organization for Defense Innovation and Research (SPND), a military institute that US officials allege is maintaining nuclear weapons expertise under the guise of a civilian nuclear program.

London, 26 Mar - The Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group could have its illicit activities in Venezuela disrupted due to the ongoing political and humanitarian crises besieging the country, according to some analysts.

For years, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro maintained a close relationship with Hezbollah and Iran, which empowered Hezbollah in terms of both money and influence. Now, the group can raise money through illicit means and funnel it through financial hubs in Central and South America.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “People don’t recognize that Hezbollah has active cells — the Iranians are impacting the people of Venezuela and throughout South America. We have an obligation to take down that risk for America.”

This decision was reached following the injunction application made by the German representative office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) after Der Spiegel published a defamatory article in February about the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and its members in their settlement in Albania.

With the United States’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is known as Iran nuclear deal, and the renewal of economic sanctions imposed on Iran, trade with European economic partner states has been severely limited, causing Iran to experience a crisis within its economy.

London, 25 Mar - On Sunday, the United States made a strategic port deal with Oman that will provide the US military with better access to the Gulf region and reduce the need to send ships through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, according to US officials.

This is important because, in the wake of the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement and imposing sanctions on Iran’s oil, Iran threatened to shut off the Strait of Hormuz, which is just off Iran’s coast. Given that 20% of the world’s oil supply travels through the waterway, this could mean huge delays or shortages as tankers find an alternative route, which would only increase oil prices.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that all the Lebanese authorities he met during his visit to Beirut on Friday believed that it was important to keep their country’s political power out of Iran's "meddlesome" hands.The problem is that Iran-backed Hezbollah currently holds a lot of political power in Lebanon.

In a warning to Berlin, the Trump administration announced that it may scale back intelligence sharing if Germany allows the Chinese technology company, Huawei, to build Germany’s new 5G infrastructure.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel immediately shot back, saying that Germany would “set its own security standards.”

Iran Human Rights (IHR) has published its 11th annual report on the death penalty in Iran. The death penalty is still be used as a means of punishment in Iran and the rate of execution per capita is very worrying.

Iran is one of the few countries in the world that carries out executions in public – a practice that is ordered by the authorities and a practice that human rights organisations have constantly criticised.

London, 20 Mar - U.S. President Trump said that Iran is defying a U.N. Security Council resolution by carrying out ballistic missile testing, as well as two satellite launches since December. Iran’s missile program and its regional meddling are reasons he cited when he pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions last May.

Iran has finally published the sentenced of human rights lawyer and activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, which states that she will serve 26 years in prison and been given 148 lashes, in addition to the five years she’s already serving for espionage.

This is the second of two verdicts against her. It was published almost a month after judicial authorities sentenced Sotoudeh.

The US is urging Europe to get tougher on Iran concerning its terrorist activities and to hold the mullahs to account for their crimes, with the US counter-terror chief warning that the continent is under increased threat from Iran and will see an increase in terror attacks if Tehran is not held responsible.